Smart prosthesis for facilitating artificial vision using scene abstraction

Abstract

A method of providing artificial vision to a visually-impaired user implanted with a visual prosthesis. The method includes configuring, in response to selection information received from the user, a smart prosthesis to perform at least one function of a plurality of functions in order to facilitate performance of a visual task. The method further includes extracting, from an input image signal generated in response to optical input representative of a scene, item information relating to at least one item within the scene relevant to the visual task. The smart prosthesis then generates image data corresponding to an abstract representation of the scene wherein the abstract representation includes a representation of the at least one item. Pixel information based upon the image data is then provided to the visual prosthesis.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 828,124, entitled “SMART PROSTHESIS FOR FACILITATING ARTIFICIAL VISION USING SCENE ABSTRACTION” filed May 28, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The systems and methods disclosed herein relate to visual prostheses. In particular, but not by way of limitation, the disclosure relates to systems and methods for enhancing the capabilities of retinal prostheses.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Now and for the foreseeable future, retinal prostheses for treating blindness are expected to possess extremely low bandwidth, i.e. pixel resolution, compared to the native capacities of a visual system including an intact retina. Thus, efforts have been made to improve the performance of retinal prostheses by operating on the pixel values produced by their imaging cameras using stand...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent is about a new way to help visually-impaired users see more clearly using a special prosthesis. The new method uses advanced techniques to extract important information from the scene and presents it in a simple and organized form, without showing everything. This makes it easier for the user to understand their surroundings and do more visual tasks.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, such efforts have not improved such prostheses to the extent necessary to enable them to become useful in providing substantial assistance to visually-impaired users desiring to engage in various everyday tasks (e.g., navigating stairs, recognizing faces, counting money).

These efforts may have been hindered at least in part because the pixel intensities registered by such cameras tend to be dominated by idiosyncratic information that is largely irrelevant to the visually-impaired user in view of the task at hand.

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